RWBY: Sapphire Blaze
by AdamMcKane
Summary: This story revolves around an original character named Zaffiro Fiammata, a 16 year old Faunus with a troubled past. After encountering RWBY team, he slowly learns to come out of his social shell and eventually makes new friends and foes. But after encountering a mysterious man from his past, Zaffiro must question whether or not some of the past that he lived was just a illusion...


**A/N: Welcome to my first fanfiction story of RWBY. This tells the story of an original character I've created called Zaffiro Fiammata, which is Italian for "Sapphire Blaze." He is a cat-based faunus like Blake, and has a pyrokinetic Semblance and fights with dual wield blades that can turn into batons, which he can use creatively either together or individually. To be experimental, Zaffiro will have an autistic like social behavior, as I do, in fact, have autism and want to see how someone like Zaffiro would interact with characters in the RWBYverse. I will do my best to keep all existing character's personality traits intact and if I do break character in a way that wouldn't make sense, please let me know and I will make amends. For now, the story will take place during the late stages of Volume 1 and in between Volumes 1 and 2. Hope you all enjoy, please comment your thoughts. I am currently working on Chapter 5 on my ColorNote app and will use it to make rough drafts. (You can find the app on the Google Play app only on Android phones, I think.) I do not own any existing characters of RWBY nor the show itself.**

** Chapter 1: Fighting Flames with Fire**

"Zaffiro, thank you for kindly volunteering!"

Glynda Goodwich called him out. Perhaps if he hadn't fallen asleep of boredom, none of this would've happened. Nonetheless, Glynda had him sparring Pyrrha Nikos, who is probably one of the best fighters in Beacon Academy, a born warrior. Much self-doubt ran through his mind considering the odds of beating someone like her, who has probably _never_ lost a fight.

"Well," he sighed. "Let's get this over with."

Standing up from where he sat, Zaffiro slowly walked down to the arena clad in his blue armor, with the sound of his amber colored jumpsuit quietly squeaking along with the sound his swords clanking against his hips. Stepping onto the arena, he looked at his sparring partner, who looked confident in herself and seemed composed in her fighting stance where she stood ready with Miló and Akoúo̱, her sword and shield. Where Zaffiro, on the other hand was still under the belief that he was going to lose 100% to her. Giving a heavy sigh, he unclipped his swords, known as Nascoto Dolore **(Hidden Pain)** in their baton feature, and held them backhanded, which seemed like a very odd way to fight to the other students who were about to watch the action unfold.

As Pyrrah took a look at her opponent, she noticed something unusual about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. But nonetheless, she stood prepared for any surprises that he might have for her. On the other hand, Zaffiro was thinking about how he could gain an advantage by studying Pyrrha, but came to no avail. It was time to begin the brawl.

Making the first attack, Zaffiro quickly dashed towards Pyrrha and, to everybody but his' surprise, swung the swords perfectly in both rhythm and harmony, given that the way he held his weapons was quite unorthodox. But still, Pyrrha managed to block and deflect most of his swings. Zaffiro kept going with every swing, perfectly switching from backhand to forehand in the way he held them. Zaffiro decided that was enough and kicked off of Pyrrha's shield. Now he waited for her move.

Pyrrha raised her shield and lifted her sword as she prepared to charge towards Zaffiro, who stood composed and waiting for her to strike. From there, she raced forward, lifting her sword at the right time to strike down Zaffiro and end the match. But right as she swung her sword, Zaffiro made his move. To everybody's surprise, they witnessed Zaffiro's special abilities.

Zaffiro hovered in the air using thrust from his fire Semblance. Now that he had the higher ground, it was his turn. Gripping his weapons, he dived towards Pyrrha, who was not expecting this. Near touching the ground, Zaffiro's blades burst into blue flames and struck the ground, creating a path of fire directly towards Pyrrha, who leapt into the air to avoid contact with the flames. While in the air, she threw her shield directly at Zaffiro last second, where it connected with him and caused him to stumble backward. Landing, Pyrrha unleashed an onslaught of brutal attacks, all connecting with Zaffiro. She eventually used her sword to uppercut and launch him into the air, where she continued to unleash her flurry of attacks. Finally, she extended her sword into its lance form and trapped his neck underneath it, where she prepared to end the match by throwing him to the ground.

As Pyrrha prepared to toss him, she felt her hands burning. A look back at her weapon and she saw Zaffiro gripping her lance and heating up the metal. She had no choice but to loosen her grip, which was where Zaffiro used that to his advantage. Grabbing one end of her lance, Zaffiro swung Pyrrha towards the ground below, where luckily she roughly stuck the landing. She watched as Zaffiro leveled his descent, tossing her lance to the ground as he touched the floor. At that point, Pyrrha threw her shield once more as a distraction while she made a break for her lance.

Seeing the shield coming, Zaffiro quickly reclaimed his batons and knocked the shield out of the air where unknown to his awareness, Pyrrha struck. But her attack was miscalculated as she accidentally stabbed Zaffiro right below his shoulder, leaving a deep graze on his left arm. Zaffiro screamed out in pain, silencing the entire room as he pulled out out, causing his blood to drip down his armor, jumpsuit, and stain the floor.

Glynda prepared to call of the match until Zaffiro stopped her.

"No! It's alright, Professor!" he shouted in pain. "I can still fight!"

"Are you sure that is wise, Zaffiro?" she asked.

Zaffiro lowered his head, closed his eyes and sighed. There he stood focused as everyone around him watched. Then with a big breath, he flicked the injured arm forward, where it burst into blue flames and engulfed the arm. Grunting, he clenched his fist and the flames disappeared, with the all the blood stains gone and his wound closed, with all but a burn scar to take its place, but his jumpsuit still had the tear from where it was penetrated from Pyrrha's sword. After taking a few breaths, he lifted his head and turned towards Pyrrha.

"Quite positive, Professor." he replied.

Immediately, he dashed towards Pyrrah, who realized last second that he was going to attack her, and swung his batons with his arm not giving any penalty from the injury. Most of his attacks were still being deflected left and right thanks to Pyrrha's sword and shield, but it was mostly her quick reflexes that kept her still standing. Zaffiro was on the offensive field now and it looked as if he wasn't going to let up either. In just a mere moment, Zaffiro's weapons were set ablaze; blue fire engulfed his weapons as he continued swinging right and left, left and right. Without hesitation, Zaffiro spun around and kicked Pyrrha's shield out of her hand. Pyrrha switched her sword into its rifle form and opened fire, where they hit Zaffiro's weapons and melted on contact from the intense heat. Pyrrha aimed once more at Zaffiro but her rifle was deflected by his batons as she fired.

Pyrrha was surprised. She had not expected this much out of Zaffiro. Nor did she expect him to fight in such creative manner. She switched her weapon back into a sword and met Zaffiro in a lock. Zaffiro was physically stronger than her and she felt it from the force he was exerting with his batons pushing down on her sword. Slowly, she could feel the heat on her blade intensifying and the heat of Zaffiro's weapons growing hotter as it pushed closer onto her face, causing her to turn her face away from the heat. Soon, it was too much for her and she was beginning to kneel from the pressure. It was nearly too hot for her to keep holding her blade she would was beginning to sweat. All of a sudden, she lifted her head and met Zaffiro's yellow eyes with hers. Slowly, to Zaffiro's surprise, she began to push back on his batons and slowly rise to his level, where she pushed her sword forward and lifted her knee, which made contact with Zaffiro's jaw, causing him stumble back and his flames dissipate from his batons, long enough for Pyrrha to retrieve her shield.

Zaffiro shook his head processed what had just happened. He had the upper hand, he overpowered Pyrrha and could've won. It didn't take him long to realize that she must have a Semblance that allowed her to manipulate certain objects. The question of what type, on the other hand, still remained a mystery to him, but he did narrow it down to two things and he was going to test them both. Twirling his batons, Zaffiro brought them back down and pressed a button. At that moment, two edges of a blade popped out of each side of each baton, turning them into swords, as well as revealing a trigger. He made a full on sprint towards Pyrrha, with a boost from his powers to assist him.

Pyrrha lifted her shield and blocked Zaffiro's first set of swings, each causing a loud scrape as the swords made contact with the shield. Although Pyrrha's reflexes were amazing, Zaffiro's attacks kept pushing her back towards the edge of the arena. Realizing this, she leapt over Zaffiro as a means of escape. As soon as she landed, though, she was left vulnerable, and Zaffiro was already pointing his sword at her, where she saw a small slit on the tip, where a bullet could come out of. As Zaffiro fired, Pyrrha swung her sword downwards with a finger lifted and her shield raised, where the bullet just barely missed her shoulder and Zaffiro dropped his swords. Pyrrha was confused as to why he abandoned the weapons he was using, as he was using them perfectly. At that moment, he began fighting her effectively unarmed.

Zaffiro's suspicions were confirmed. Polarity. That's her secret. That's how she overpowered him. With his bullets as the only source of magnetic material, it made sense as to how he missed at, otherwise, a perfect shot. But she wasn't all that open about it, which gave him the assumption that that's intentional, and she's wants to keep it under wraps. With his mind fully focused on the battle, he unleashed a flurry of kicks and punches, all connecting with her sword and shield. He could feel his body growing tired from the constant fighting he was engaged in. His speed was falling and Pyrrha was picking up on it. With one last act of desperation, he lifted his leg to kick Pyrrha, only to trip and fall, too tired to get back up.

Pyrrha took Zaffiro's fatigue to her advantage. As he tripped on his own attack, she readied her shield and charged towards Zaffiro, who was getting back up, and slammed her shield against her face, causing him to stumble and fall. As she walked up to him, he slowly started getting back up and looked right at her.

"End it." he told her. "I totally screwed that up."

Pyrrha hesitated for a moment at the command. Noticing this, Zaffiro sighed and threw a fireball towards her, missing her in the process. Pyrrha retaliated by turning her sword into her lance and hitting him in the face, knocking him down one final time, ending the match altogether.

Glynda Goodwitch stepped up onto the arena and turned towards Pyrrha.

"And this round goes to Pyrrha. Impressive, both of you. Class dismissed."

Zaffiro got back up and rubbed his jaw. He went to pick up his weapons and pressed another button, hiding the blades and trigger. Attaching them back to his waist, Zaffiro went back to his seat to grab his coat, the classroom empty. As he put it on and set out for the door, there stood Pyrrha, apparently waiting for him


End file.
